Author: Christa Desir
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: October 15th, 2013
My Rating: 2.5 out of 5.0
Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl — sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.
But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone.
Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?
Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.
But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone.
Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?
Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.
My Review:
I have to probably put this down for one of the worst books I've read to date. While I didn't absolutely hate it, but the more I think about the more I dislike it. There is so much wrong with this book I have a problem giving it the 2.5, but it did do some things right. The plus side is I liked some of the originality that it brought to the hard topic, but at the same time it just falls so so short. I want to warn everyone right away, this book will either be one of two things, You'll love it, or you'll hate it. I don't believe a book like this can go either way, and that itself is what drove me crazy.
Okay time to dive into this sexually repressed book, that overly uses rape as an explanation. The writing style was moderate to best, and when that failed, the characters fell with it. The book focuses on one of two parts that I am not sure which it's trying to get across, and once the lighter from the cover gets revealed, yeah, you'll be shocked, but that's like most of everything else in this novel. I just hate to say that yea the book deals with rape, but the majority of it is shock value.
Ben was a character I wanted to like, however, as the story goes on, he is just so dull and boring. There are times where he doesn't listen to Annika, and he acts of his own accord. I find that he was more of a chauvinistic boy than anything else, and it made me rather sad. Throwing that aside, if you were him, and had a relationship with Anni and were going through that trauma, I can't say how I would act or what would be the preferred way to act. It just made the whole story muddy and frankly I disagree with everything he did from nearly the very beginning.
Anni was the biggest part that infuriated me, I understand that she was molested or raped at a party, but from then on that's what controlled her life. She never made an excuse, it was this is who I am, and what I did, now I must act the part. It was sad, depressing, and frankly just despicable. I can see where someone may think (not act) the way that Anni did, so that's where I give some credit to the story, so it's not a complete loss. However, does that mean I enjoyed it or thought the story was worth the time reading, No; because, nothing happened.
Now there are two ways I interpreted the book. The first was looking at Anni and the story of Anni. I at first thought it was supposed to bring light to the whole rape topic and this is how they feel. I didn't buy into it, and if that's how rape victims feel, I don't see the majority of them rebounding and diving back into sex like Anni did. It's just too radical. The other way was Ben's perspective, which I think is the intended one. Yea it's tragic to have someone so close to you raped, but trying to help them through it on your won instead of seeking help, or telling someone at that age, no matter what, is above your head. It's was childish, and naive. I can't say I bought into that either, and it makes the whole intention of the novel crumble.
The book is shock value, and very poorly done at that, and while the purpose of the book is so muddied and bogged down, it just isn't conveyed well at all. I found the book to be a bigger insult, it needed a different set of eyes or something, because this is not something I would recommend to anyone whose gone through this type of situation. Again if you read this, be very careful and remember that this book isn't a happy read. In fact, there's probably other books out there that have this topic and do it better, or frankly have characters that have some resemblance of humanity in them.
Okay time to dive into this sexually repressed book, that overly uses rape as an explanation. The writing style was moderate to best, and when that failed, the characters fell with it. The book focuses on one of two parts that I am not sure which it's trying to get across, and once the lighter from the cover gets revealed, yeah, you'll be shocked, but that's like most of everything else in this novel. I just hate to say that yea the book deals with rape, but the majority of it is shock value.
Ben was a character I wanted to like, however, as the story goes on, he is just so dull and boring. There are times where he doesn't listen to Annika, and he acts of his own accord. I find that he was more of a chauvinistic boy than anything else, and it made me rather sad. Throwing that aside, if you were him, and had a relationship with Anni and were going through that trauma, I can't say how I would act or what would be the preferred way to act. It just made the whole story muddy and frankly I disagree with everything he did from nearly the very beginning.
Anni was the biggest part that infuriated me, I understand that she was molested or raped at a party, but from then on that's what controlled her life. She never made an excuse, it was this is who I am, and what I did, now I must act the part. It was sad, depressing, and frankly just despicable. I can see where someone may think (not act) the way that Anni did, so that's where I give some credit to the story, so it's not a complete loss. However, does that mean I enjoyed it or thought the story was worth the time reading, No; because, nothing happened.
Now there are two ways I interpreted the book. The first was looking at Anni and the story of Anni. I at first thought it was supposed to bring light to the whole rape topic and this is how they feel. I didn't buy into it, and if that's how rape victims feel, I don't see the majority of them rebounding and diving back into sex like Anni did. It's just too radical. The other way was Ben's perspective, which I think is the intended one. Yea it's tragic to have someone so close to you raped, but trying to help them through it on your won instead of seeking help, or telling someone at that age, no matter what, is above your head. It's was childish, and naive. I can't say I bought into that either, and it makes the whole intention of the novel crumble.
The book is shock value, and very poorly done at that, and while the purpose of the book is so muddied and bogged down, it just isn't conveyed well at all. I found the book to be a bigger insult, it needed a different set of eyes or something, because this is not something I would recommend to anyone whose gone through this type of situation. Again if you read this, be very careful and remember that this book isn't a happy read. In fact, there's probably other books out there that have this topic and do it better, or frankly have characters that have some resemblance of humanity in them.
